During the last year, the Kingston General Hospital Environmental Services department has been involved in a voluntarily audit of our facilities that is among the most rigorous in the country.
The most recent of these audits, performed by a company called Westech, awarded KGH an overall score of 82.02 per cent, just short of our 85 per cent goal.
"We're really pleased with the results considering just how thorough Westech is," says Jim Jeroy, Director of Environmental Services. "In the business of cleaning, they have become the standard everyone counts on." Jeroy says that the first audit that happened back in 2011 was unlike anything our staff had ever seen. Auditors checked all the nooks and crannies of our critical care, clinical and office areas. KGH ended up scoring just under 70 per cent. In our last audit this past spring, we did much better, hitting almost 80 percent. "The staff have really taken to the challenge," says Jeroy. "The commitment from them was amazing, and they quickly adopted new strategies, even using toothbrushes to clean some of the trickier spots in our clinical spaces." The Westech audits also led to a brand new training regiment for our Environmental Services staff, created right here at KGH. By combining the best practices from the Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee (PIDAC) and cleaning standards from Westech, a hybrid system was born. That combination of PIDAC's suggested products and practices and Westech's attention to detail and high standards, has given our staff the tools and knowledge to shine. "Working with Westech has been a challenge and that's been a good thing," says Jeroy. "The most uplifting part for our department is the impact our work is having on our patients as we strive to deliver a new level of cleanliness that's visible from the moment you arrive."
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